What is Iconomi? Beginner’s Guide to Digital Asset Arrays

What is Iconomi?

Iconomi is a digital asset management platform that allows users to create or invest in digital asset arrays (DAA). Although Coinbase and other industry movers would have you think otherwise, Iconomi actually established one of (if not the) first cryptocurrency index fund, the Blockhain Index DAA.

Separating itself further from other cryptocurrency index/hedger funds, there’s no barrier to entry for Iconomi’s assets. Unlike the Coinbase Index Fund, non-accredited investors can enjoy complete access to all of the platform’s DAAs. This approach, the team believes, “is creating the missing link between the old and the new economy,” one where the average individual can benefit from investment practices that used to exist solely for the elite and economically privileged.

How Iconomi Works

Iconomi focuses on offering investors a variety of high, moderate, and low risk investment vehicles with high liquidity. These investments come in the form of DAAs that users can buy into on the Iconomi platform, and all DAAs promise immediate withdrawals with no threat of lock-outs.

To invest in a DAA, you’ll need to set up an account on Iconomi’s website. From there, you can deposit cryptocurrency to buy into a variety of DAAs. The platform itself uses Ethereum-powered smart contracts to manage investments, and Iconomi keeps most all funds in multi-signature cold storage to insulate them from hacking attempts.

The idea here is to offer an easy avenue for investment, one where all you have to do is point, click, and Iconomi does the rest. Some of these funds are managed thanks to DAA managers that Iconomi has selected to build asset arrays on its platform. Managers can curate/create their own DAAs using the platform’s toolkit, and they collect fees by attracting users to their DAAs and/or managing other user funds. The more successful a DAA, the better reputation its manager will have on the platform and the more investors it will likely attract.

Right now, the DAAs Iconomi lists have been established by industry leaders in the cryptocurrency/capital investment space, including Columbus Capital Ltd. and Solidum Capital. In its current state, Iconomi has a total of 11 DAAs to choose from, each with its own mixture of crypto assets and degree of risk/return potential. Each also has its own management fee, ranging typically from 1-5%. Some of the DAAs have their own ERC20 tokens to represent shares, and some of these tokens can be actively traded on exchanges (to find out more on this front, token details are listed on each DAA’s information page).

Without going into too much detail, here are a few examples of the funds the platform offers:

Blockchain Index (BLX): Iconomi’s flagship DAA and its Dow Jones equivalent. Proclaimed by its creators as “keeping a finger on the pulse of the blockchain economy,” it includes well-vetted, established projects with at least a working beta. Among its 33 assets, it houses Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Monero, Icon, Qtum, and Lisk.

Crush Crypto Core (CCC): This DAA specializes in “high-quality and undervalued” assets and is meant to serve as a long term portfolio. It was built to outperform low-risk portfolios that go 50/50 into Bitcoin and Ethereum, and its 13 assets include such coins as Ethereum, Monero, Bitcoin, Icon, Kyber Network, and Raiden Network.

Solidum Prime (SOPR): Advertising itself as “the world’s first equal weight DAA,” SOPR offers a balanced portfolio in some of the more potentially promising currencies offered on Iconomi’s platform. The fund holds 3-4% of each of its roughly 30 assets, including Quantstamp, Golem, OmiseGo, Monero, Icon, Request Network, Ethereum, Steem, and more.

The ICN Token

As you’d likely expect, Iconomi comes with its own native token, ICN. In its purest form, ICN represents shares of the Iconomi platform. The team originally had it in mind to use it for company dividends, but due to the headache this would cause for navigating country-t0-country securities laws, they’ve opted instead for a buyback program. Under this model, Iconomi takes a portion of its profits to buy back ICN from investors, in turn burning these ICN to create value for holders.

Still, the ICN token’s general lack of clear utility has left some community members anxious and wary as to its necessity. As the platform opens DAA management to more individuals/entities, the token will be used to create a DAA (its current primary utility) and pay for other actions, such as re-balancing and raising limits on funds.

In a recent Medium post, the Iconomi team revealed that they plan to announce two major use cases for the ICN token this March.

Iconomi Team and Roadmap

One of the project’s co-founders and its CEO, Tim M. Zagar, served as CEO for Cashila, a Bitcoin payment gateway based in Prague, before starting Iconomi. Jani Valjavec, Iconomi’s second co-founder, also helped co-found Cashila and is a founding member of Columbus Capital Ltd.

COO Matej Tomazin has extensive experience in business management and operations, both as a CEO and as a broker/portfolio manager. Iconomi’s CTO, Miha Vidmar, has 15+ years in software development/engineering, and he comes to the project after serving as Head of Development for Halcom d.d.

At the end of 2017, the team published a Medium article detailing their vision for 2018 and what they hope to introduce to the platform. On the docket are a number of improvements for users, expansion of platform offerings, and added tools for DAA managers. Notable additions to the platform include:

Fiat integration for deposits/withdrawals

Direct purchase of individual assets

A debit card

Support for DAA manager company accounts

DAA tokenization optimization

ICN payable fees

Big Four audit

Launch of private DAAs (invite only investments)

API integration for data/trading

Iconomi Trading History

Iconomi recently found its way into the top 100. At the time of this writing, it’s sitting at a price of ~$1.80 with the #83 spot on CoinMarketCap.

Where to Buy Iconomi

Binance currently lays claim to the largest ICN market, accounting for over 80% of all trading volume with BTC and ETH trading pairs.

Kraken and OKEx support the next largest markets with BTC and ETH pairs, as well.

Where to Store Iconomi

As with most coins we have the pleasure of covering, Iconomi is an ERC20 token. As such, the usual rabble of popular Ethereum wallets will suffice (e.g., MyEtherWallet, MetaMask, Parity, Ledger Nano S, Trezor, etc.)

Final Thoughts

The Iconomi team is building an investment platform for the everyday-man, and in doing so, they’re both opening up formerly non-existent investment opportunities to those who couldn’t access them and making cryptocurrency investing more accessible to the general public.

As the platform progresses, we expect to see a greater variety of DAAs from various managers, more mature investment and portfolio tracking tools, a more robust utility for the ICN token, fiat gateways, and much more. We also hope that Iconomi will be opened to US investors in the future, but we’ll need to wait to see how regulations pan out in the star-spangled nation first before this possibility is entertained.

At its core, Iconomi is opening crypto’s coffers to everyone, turning an already revolutionary, democratizing asset class into something that everyone can enjoy. As the arch of adoption ranges forth, watching Iconomi grow alongside more exclusive index fund providers, such as Coinbase, will offer a glimpse into how new retail and institutional investors choose to approach this burgeoning asset class.

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Colin Harper

Colin is a freelance writer and crypto-enthusiast based in Nashville, TN. When he's not speculating crypto futures, he's probably letting his hair down and/or heading to a music festival--because stereotypes exist for a reason.You can reach him here: [email protected]